If you’re drinking more than you want to, the most effective help comes from a combination of practical strategies: slowing your body’s absorption of alcohol, supporting recovery when you’ve overdone it, and building habits or getting professional support to cut back over time. What works depends on whether you’re dealing with the aftermath of a rough night or trying to change a longer pattern.
For context, binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks for women or five or more for men in a single occasion. Heavy drinking means eight or more drinks per week for women, or 15 or more for men. If either of those sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and there are concrete things that help.
How Your Body Processes Alcohol
Your liver breaks down alcohol at a fairly fixed pace: roughly one standard drink per hour for an average-sized person. There’s no way to speed this up meaningfully. The rate varies by a factor of three to four between individuals depending on genetics, body size, liver health, and other factors, but no supplement, coffee, or cold shower changes the underlying chemistry. Your liver works through alcohol on its own schedule.
One genetic factor worth knowing: between 15 and 40 percent of people with East Asian ancestry carry a gene variant that makes their bodies far less efficient at clearing acetaldehyde, a toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism. This causes intense flushing, nausea, and discomfort after even small amounts of alcohol. If that describes you, your body is essentially telling you it handles alcohol poorly at a biochemical level.
Food in your stomach slows the rate alcohol enters your bloodstream. This is the simplest and most effective thing you can do before drinking: eat a real meal first. It won’t prevent intoxication, but it spreads the absorption over a longer window, giving your liver more time to keep up.
Recovering After a Night of Heavy Drinking
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it pulls water out of your body faster than normal. Rehydrating is the single most helpful thing you can do the morning after. Water works. Adding electrolytes (from sports drinks, broth, or oral rehydration solutions) helps your body hold onto that fluid more effectively, especially if you’ve been vomiting.
Two specific nutrients play a role in how your body processes alcohol: nicotinic acid (a form of vitamin B3) and zinc. Both are cofactors in the enzyme pathways that break down ethanol. Research on social drinkers found that people with higher dietary intake of these nutrients reported significantly less severe hangovers. You don’t need supplements for this. Zinc is abundant in meat, shellfish, and legumes. Nicotinic acid is found in chicken, tuna, mushrooms, and fortified grains. Eating well before and after drinking makes a measurable difference.
If you need a pain reliever, avoid acetaminophen (Tylenol). Your liver processes both acetaminophen and alcohol, and the combination increases the risk of liver damage. NSAIDs like ibuprofen or naproxen are generally a better option after drinking, though they can irritate an already-sensitive stomach, so take them with food.
One popular supplement, dihydromyricetin (DHM), is marketed as an alcohol metabolism booster. Clinical data tells a different story. A controlled study found DHM does not significantly affect alcohol metabolism rate, does not decrease blood levels of either alcohol or acetaldehyde, and in some cases actually slowed alcohol processing. Save your money.
Recognizing Alcohol Poisoning
There’s a critical line between being very drunk and being in danger. Alcohol poisoning happens when someone drinks so much so fast that it disrupts breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and the gag reflex. Symptoms include confusion, vomiting, seizures, and trouble staying conscious. A person who has passed out and cannot be woken could die.
Call 911 immediately if someone shows these signs. Don’t assume they’ll sleep it off. Don’t try to make them vomit, as this can cause choking. If they’re vomiting on their own, try to keep them sitting up. If they must lie down, turn their head to the side. Never leave an unconscious person alone.
Cutting Back With Behavioral Strategies
If you’re searching for help with drinking too much, you may be ready to change the pattern itself. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most well-studied approaches for alcohol use problems. It works by helping you identify the situations, thoughts, and emotions that trigger drinking, then building specific skills to handle those moments differently. Core techniques include analyzing the function alcohol serves in your life, practicing ways to cope with cravings, learning to refuse drinks in social settings, and developing alternative problem-solving habits.
A large meta-analysis of 53 controlled trials found that 58 percent of people receiving CBT fared better than those in comparison groups. The effects were strongest when CBT was combined with other forms of support. Even computer-based CBT programs that teach these skills through structured modules have shown benefit. The key ingredient is practice: completing exercises between sessions that help new coping skills become automatic in real-world situations.
Motivational interviewing is another approach, often used alongside CBT, that focuses on strengthening your own reasons for changing rather than having someone tell you what to do. It’s particularly useful in the early stages when you’re ambivalent about cutting back.
Medications That Reduce Drinking
Three medications are FDA-approved for alcohol use disorder, and they work in very different ways. One reduces the rewarding feeling alcohol produces, making drinking feel less satisfying over time. It’s available as a daily pill or a monthly injection and is often the first option doctors consider. A second medication helps stabilize brain chemistry that becomes disrupted after prolonged heavy drinking, easing the anxiety and restlessness that often drive people back to alcohol. The third creates an intensely unpleasant physical reaction (nausea, flushing, rapid heartbeat) if you drink while taking it. Because the reaction is so severe, this one is only used when the goal is complete abstinence, and it works best when someone else can verify you’re taking it daily.
These medications are underused. Many people don’t know they exist, and many doctors don’t bring them up. If you’re finding it difficult to cut back on your own, asking a doctor about medication options is a reasonable next step. They work best when paired with some form of counseling or behavioral support.
Protecting Your Brain Long-Term
Heavy drinking over time depletes vitamin B1 (thiamine) in ways that can cause serious brain damage. Poor nutrition combined with alcohol’s effect on gut absorption means thiamine levels can drop dangerously low. This can lead to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a condition that starts with confusion, poor coordination, and vision problems, and can progress to severe, irreversible memory loss if untreated.
Early symptoms of the initial stage (Wernicke’s disease) are reversible with prompt treatment, which is why it’s considered a medical emergency. The later stage (Korsakoff’s psychosis) involves permanent damage: inability to form new memories, confabulation (making up stories to fill memory gaps), hallucinations, and loss of motivation. If you or someone you know has been drinking heavily for an extended period and develops confusion, balance problems, or abnormal eye movements, these are not just “being drunk.” They signal a nutritional emergency.
For anyone who drinks regularly, maintaining good nutrition, particularly foods rich in B vitamins (whole grains, pork, legumes, nuts), provides a basic layer of protection. It’s not a substitute for reducing intake, but it addresses one of heavy drinking’s most dangerous downstream effects.